8th Wonderland - DVD

Film: The Internet has long been more than a colorful playground, where there is all sorts of information, funny videos or masses of unclothed people in unique positions to find. The Internet is also a powerful instrument of power, used by advertising, corporations, but also by politics. The film "8. Wonderland" attempts to show not only how powerful the Internet can be, but also how easily the supposed independence of the World Wide Web can be influenced.

The 8th Wonderland is an Internet community with members all over the world. Democracy reigns here, values such as equality and humanity are writ large. Any form of oppression, exploitation or corruption are a thorn in the side of the inhabitants of the digital wonderland. That's why they are always coming up with guerrilla actions with which they hope to change the world for the better. Whether condom vending machines are set up in the Vatican or the Thanksgiving turkey of the US president is kidnapped, the actions of the 8th Wonderland attract more and more media interest. But the greater the interest from the outside and the more radical the actions carried out in the name of the Wonderland become, the stronger the doubts within the community become. And when a certain John McClane poses as the creator of it all and exploits the popularity of the 8th Wonderland for purely commercial purposes, the virtual state threatens to finally collapse...

"8. Wonderland" is undoubtedly a very ambitious project. It is quite fascinating that here two filmmakers can entertain better and convey more intelligent content with the simplest of means and a low budget, in some cases, than many large-scale productions. However, it also can't be denied that the movie seems to be a little bit too forced and simply exhausting in some parts. The filmmakers' ambitions are simply too high and crush the production, which is refreshingly loose at the beginning, under its enormous weight.

Nevertheless: the film is original and thought-provoking. And not too shabby either. The execution of it all is consistent and never actually feels like a feature film, which definitely intensifies the effect. If you like to spend your time on Facebook, MySpace and Co. or if you want to deal with a possible future of internet communities in a very entertaining way, you should definitely take a trip to "8. Wonderland". No film for mass tastes, but still a highly interesting film experiment!

Picture + Sound: The technical implementation of the DVD corresponds entirely to the content of the film and must therefore be evaluated as a deliberately used stylistic device. The sound remains largely unspectacular and the clean picture is in many scenes on the level of better Internet videos. But since that is exactly what is intended, there is a well-deserved: good for this!

Extras: The only extra worth mentioning is an audio commentary provided with optional German subtitles by the two directors, who talk about the making of the film, their intentions and little hidden details in a pleasantly ironic way. A good commentary that offers an interesting insight into this ambitious work.

In addition to the commentary, the DVD has only a teaser, the trailer for the film, as well as other trailers from the offer of the provider in the bag.

Conclusion: "8. Wonderland" is an interesting piece of work that can entertain on a small budget while also being thought-provoking. While the intensity of it all diminishes a bit towards the overstuffed ending, the bottom line is that the film can be considered a thoroughly successful experiment. The DVD offers an adequate technical realization, but has only a good audio commentary as bonus material. So, all in all, this DVD can be recommended to all lovers of original art house cinema.

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp